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flosofl posted:The wrapped mini-bar of soap makes me thing it's a hotel bathroom. And the extra roll behind the current one, complete with commercial wrapping. Still hilarious, though.
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Jun 4, 2016 06:08
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frozenpussy posted:At each end of the attic were 18' vents and even though it was October the temperature in the attic was heat stroke territory. To be fair October in San Antonio can still be in the 90's.
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Jun 4, 2016 06:13
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Baronjutter posted:What's the best system if you live somewhere that doesn't get hot in the summer or cold in the winter? Just a well insulated house, some sort of central heating system (or just lovely baseboards?) and windows that can open? I bought a house with a mother-in-law suit in the basement and ended up living in it. I have to remind myself to turn the AC on in the summer so I don't wake up in the mushroom kingdom. Since we're talking energy efficiency, anyone have any opinions on alternative energy sources that aren't solar panels?
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Jun 4, 2016 09:36
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there wolf posted:I bought a house with a mother-in-law suit in the basement and ended up living in it. I have to remind myself to turn the AC on in the summer so I don't wake up in the mushroom kingdom. Since we're talking energy efficiency, anyone have any opinions on alternative energy sources that aren't solar panels? Do you have a river on your property? A hill with a steady breeze? A chasm leading to the magmatic depths? No? Then you're probably stuck with solar. Though that last option is not completely out of the question, in a way. I've heard of people digging effectively what are dry wells and running a heat exchanger 10' or so down into the earth. Down there the temperature's basically constant year-round, so you can use that to cool down in the hot months, or warm up in the cold months.
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Jun 4, 2016 16:03
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flosofl posted:The wrapped mini-bar of soap makes me thing it's a hotel bathroom. And the TP holder with a spare roll space, but I would absolutely also love that in my home. Then I could be out of two rolls of paper at once.
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Jun 4, 2016 16:49
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StormDrain posted:And the TP holder with a spare roll space, but I would absolutely also love that in my home. Then I could be out of two rolls of paper at once. Two?   e: I have never seen these anywhere except for the two I've got.
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Jun 4, 2016 16:53
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do you have a river on your property? A hill with a steady breeze? A chasm leading to the magmatic depths? No? Then you're probably stuck with solar. I was going to suggest a buried heat exchanger but didn't want to sound life hacky. If I find myself in a ground floor room I'd like to bury some water lines underground as part of my computer cooling setup. It's a small space heater right now. I've seen some copper pipe projects sunk into a shallow trench in the lawn but I think I'll need something a bit more substantial for all the heat I generate over average computers.
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Jun 4, 2016 16:58
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frozenpussy posted:I was going to suggest a buried heat exchanger but didn't want to sound life hacky. If I find myself in a ground floor room I'd like to bury some water lines underground as part of my computer cooling setup. It's a small space heater right now. I've seen some copper pipe projects sunk into a shallow trench in the lawn but I think I'll need something a bit more substantial for all the heat I generate over average computers. Running Disney porn sites uses a lot of computing power, then?
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Jun 4, 2016 17:45
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do you have a river on your property? A hill with a steady breeze? A chasm leading to the magmatic depths? No? Then you're probably stuck with solar. I have a chasm leading to the city storm drain, maybe I could set up a tiny hydroelectric dam... The dry well thing is a geothermal heat pump and I've been looking into it. Would require a new furnace and someone to dig a 20-30" hole in the yard, but it would theoretically erase the need for heat and AC, while heating water as well. Maybe I'll do both that and the less efficient solar and sell the house at a premium to some granola yuppies.
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Jun 4, 2016 18:15
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Zhentar posted:You're heating/cooling the space your air handler is in, whether you want to or not.  
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Jun 4, 2016 20:09
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This looks bad, but consider than many attics are hotter than the air outside.
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Jun 4, 2016 20:16
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Platystemon posted:This looks bad, but consider than many attics are hotter than the air outside. A hot attic is probably better than direct south Florida sunlight. The surface of that duct is probably 160° in the summer time.
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Jun 4, 2016 20:19
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This is why when I look for an apartment I make sure the unit is not the top floor, and is preferably facing north. Use other tenants' air conditioned living spaces as my heat buffer. It's a deal breaker if I can't find such a unit, and the first thing I ask about.
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Jun 4, 2016 20:24
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My current unit is on the south end not just of the building, but the whole complex, so there's not even a hint of shade from other buildings. Top floor, too. My bedroom, however, gets uncomfortably cold a lot of the time; it's shaded and out of the sun, and my roommate blasts the a/c continuously because the rest of the unit the vents can't keep up with incoming heat. So my room gets so cold I occasionally have to go wash my hands/feet just to warm them up. The crappy construction tale I guess is poor ventilation balancing/insulation, and the vents whistle when "closed" and don't cut the airflow down much anyway so there's not much I can do about it short of telling him to just suffer. At least we've got a pretty generous utility cap built into the rent.
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Jun 4, 2016 21:07
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Platystemon posted:You know what I miss? Transom windows. Unironically this. Such wonderful things for ventilation.
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Jun 4, 2016 22:43
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MrYenko posted:A hot attic is probably better than direct south Florida sunlight. The surface of that duct is probably 160° in the summer time. Probably a dumb question, but what if you built a basic shade over the pipe and painted it white? Something that doesn't block airflow but deflects sunlight? Might that help?
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Jun 5, 2016 00:07
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Buff Skeleton posted:Probably a dumb question, but what if you built a basic shade over the pipe and painted it white? Something that doesn't block airflow but deflects sunlight? Might that help? Or just painted the pipe itself white.
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Jun 5, 2016 00:10
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frozenpussy posted:This is why when I look for an apartment I make sure the unit is not the top floor, and is preferably facing north. Use other tenants' air conditioned living spaces as my heat buffer. It's a deal breaker if I can't find such a unit, and the first thing I ask about. Let me tell you about my west-facing third story top floor apartment with a huge sun window above the patio door.
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Jun 5, 2016 00:34
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Buff Skeleton posted:Probably a dumb question, but what if you built a basic shade over the pipe and painted it white? Something that doesn't block airflow but deflects sunlight? Might that help? Something to shelter it from sunlight, like... a roof? The exposed whatever-that-is is bad but not much worse than that flat layer of wood and asphalt for a roof. Manslaughter posted:Let me tell you about my west-facing third story top floor apartment with a huge sun window above the patio door. I was going to let this go because I can't tell if you're mocking me, and if you are I will fight you.
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Jun 5, 2016 01:10
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This is like a where's waldo except the goal is to spot all the reasons the place should be burned down with the homeowner in it.
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Jun 5, 2016 01:16
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frozenpussy posted:This is like a where's waldo except the goal is to spot all the reasons the place should be burned down with the homeowner in it. First: It's in Miami. *mic drop*
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Jun 5, 2016 01:22
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I love the authenticity that Disney puts into their attractions, like the death trap wiring in the building leading up to the Everest ride. There's fake loose wiring hanging all over the place. 
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Jun 5, 2016 02:16
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Enourmo posted:The crappy construction tale I guess is poor ventilation balancing/insulation, and the vents whistle when "closed" and don't cut the airflow down much anyway so there's not much I can do about it short of telling him to just suffer. There's magnetic vent covers made to solve this problem, if you want to cut the airflow to just your room. Odds are also good that the ventcovers pull off the ducts easily, so if you want a cheap but more involved solution you could seal them from the inside with duct tape or similar. Splizwarf fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Jun 5, 2016 |
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Jun 5, 2016 02:39
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tomapot posted:I love the authenticity that Disney puts into their attractions, like the death trap wiring in the building leading up to the Everest ride. There's fake loose wiring hanging all over the place. Everest is one of the best-themed rides I've ever been on. They went all out on that one. But not on the Yeti's concrete footers. 
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Jun 5, 2016 03:14
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it's missing some glowy bits and soot on the wall from the occasional fire
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Jun 5, 2016 03:18
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there wolf posted:Since we're talking energy efficiency, anyone have any opinions on alternative energy sources that aren't solar panels? Aside from solar, the only small scale "alternative" energy option that's even vaguely cost effective is cogeneration, where instead of burning fuel to heat your home, you burn fuel to generate electricity and use the leftover waste heat to heat your home. It's still not particularly cost effective in most cases and there aren't any currently supported systems to do it. there wolf posted:I have a chasm leading to the city storm drain, maybe I could set up a tiny hydroelectric dam... The dry well thing is a geothermal heat pump and I've been looking into it. Would require a new furnace and someone to dig a 20-30" hole in the yard, but it would theoretically erase the need for heat and AC, while heating water as well. Maybe I'll do both that and the less efficient solar and sell the house at a premium to some granola yuppies. Ground source heat pumps are pretty cool, and the theory behind them is sound, but sadly the commercially available heat pumps don't actually achieve a particularly compelling economic benefit. Inverter split systems or ductless mini splits come surprisingly close to meeting ground source heat pumps in efficiency, at a much lower equipment cost and design complexity. Solar panels will get you a far better ROI than a GSHP in most of the US.
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Jun 5, 2016 03:31
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That's not a vent duct, it's a transfer pipe to move the meth from the production lab to the brite tanks.
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Jun 5, 2016 03:37
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Regarding Texas death trap apartment wouldn't that warrant a call to some combination of the fire Marshall or an insurance company. Pretty sure I would try and get on record that the situation was reported even if you were to get the gently caress out.
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Jun 5, 2016 04:54
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This is common in Arizona, but somewhat excusable as it's mostly swamp --> ac conversions on homes that have flat roofs and are slab construction and so there's nowhere for the ducts to go. Sometimes they even coat the new ducting in the same reflective white elastomeric coating as the roof!
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Jun 5, 2016 05:32
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Then, there's Coraopolis, PA:
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Jun 5, 2016 06:18
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Girl city, I think not.
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Jun 5, 2016 06:56
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PainterofCrap posted:Then, there's Coraopolis, PA: This is basically every zombie horror movie / TV show / video game suburbia irl
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Jun 5, 2016 07:47
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tomapot posted:I love the authenticity that Disney puts into their attractions, like the death trap wiring in the building leading up to the Everest ride. There's fake loose wiring hanging all over the place. Why's there an upside down fermata there?
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Jun 5, 2016 09:19
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 Original caption: “Foundation fell down the mountain. Good thing they fixed it.” La Paz, Bolivia
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Jun 5, 2016 12:57
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There's a house under construction near me that is apparently someone's side project which they work on for one weekend a month. It's a year in and they are just doing the shingles. My question: is it actually okay to leave a house half finished all through a Connecticut winter? It was pretty mild this year, but the window openings were still empty and the roof only had paper on it.
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Jun 5, 2016 14:03
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frozenpussy posted:I keep saying ceilings but I think what I mean is roofs. Yeah. And looking at this attic again, those roof supports seem very crappy. They aren't supposed to look like that, are they. They should be nice and symmetrical, like this attic? Is that a mound of dirt shoveled into the ceiling as insulation, or what the hell am I seeing here?
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Jun 5, 2016 15:52
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Trent posted:Is that a mound of dirt shoveled into the ceiling as insulation, or what the hell am I seeing here? Very old insulation, it is like soft, dried paper pulp.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:28
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PainterofCrap posted:Then, there's Coraopolis, PA: Did they take a single-wide trailer and build a house around it or something?
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Jun 5, 2016 16:44
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Powerlurker posted:Did they take a single-wide trailer and build a house around it or something? Ooh I was wondering what that shape was.
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Jun 5, 2016 17:41
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smackfu posted:There's a house under construction near me that is apparently someone's side project which they work on for one weekend a month. It's a year in and they are just doing the shingles. You can't control the weather, even when you're actively building. You build when it lets you, so your building will have to withstand the weather when you can't build on it. The biggest danger to a building is water, mostly from mold and ice damage. Now mold grows best in a wet place with stagnant air. The building being open actually helps you there. As long as the roof is on, any water that managed to get in should be minimal and will dry out before mold or mildew get a chance to grow. As for ice, as long as you don't let water collect in the basement, it should be OK.
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Jun 5, 2016 18:07
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